Madison, Wis. – On Wednesday, May 4, 2011 Wisconsin state republicans leaked three Legislative Reference Bureau drafts of concealed carry legislation that quickly began making the rounds among gun activists on the Internet. The bill drafts have not been introduced, which suggests they may have been released simultaneously to “test the wind.”

Two of the bill drafts — LRB-2033/1, the Senate version and LRB-2027/1 the assembly designation — are permit-to-carry bills that create a licensing scheme for concealed carry.

In an alert just released by NRA, they claim that “The second is a “shall issue” carry license bill that allows Wisconsinites to obtain a license from the state Department of Justice (DOJ) in order to carry a concealed weapon. This license bill offers some additional benefits. These include the ability to use the license to carry a concealed weapon in many other states while traveling and the ability to carry concealed weapons in school zones (1000-foot area surrounding school grounds).”

Aside from the “additional benefits” NRA is using to sell the license bill, it is not clear if passage of the permit bill will statutorily override a simple removal of the ban on carrying concealed weapons without a license as proposed in the Constitutional Carry bill draft.

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The NRA also relabeled Constitutional Carry as “permit-less carry,” a detraction from the unified terminology understood by gun owners. Further, the NRA’s Bill Summary does not clarify the issue of whether passage of the permit bill will stop Constitutional Carry in its tracks, or co-exist with it. This fact will no doubt not be welcomed news by the “NRA can do no wrong” crowd, but anyone assessing the situation honestly will want to watch this legislative sleight of hand very closely — once a permit-based weapons bureaucracy is built, tearing it down again and restoring true right-to-carry (Constitutional Carry or, Vermont-Style Carry) will be an even harder uphill battle. Read more